Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
MEG is a pure play environmental services company that offers end-to-end solutions for addressing environmental issues. This is the second quarter in a row the stock traded up sharply on quarterly results. While there has been a persistent overhang on the stock from environmental deregulation concerns, the company continues to execute its long-range plan of high single digit organic growth.

BSD Analysis:
Montrose is the high-growth environmental consolidator, acting as the essential partner for industries forced to comply with escalating, non-negotiable PFAS and air quality regulations. The core investment is a roll-up strategy, where the company systematically acquires smaller environmental services firms, immediately applying its proprietary technology and standardized service model to achieve superior margins. The company's double-digit organic growth is guaranteed by structural tailwinds like stricter federal regulations, particularly around contaminated sites. Montrose is a highly leveraged bet on the "ESG compliance" boom, where its deep regulatory expertise and superior operating leverage translate mandatory corporate spending into accelerating cash flows and continued M&A-driven expansion.

Pitch Summary:
ROAD has been a leader in seven of the past nine quarters, driven by robust demand in the road maintenance and infrastructure market. This is partially driven by the infrastructure investment made by the Federal government. ROAD reported solid fiscal 2Q results that exceeded expectations. Organic revenue increased, EBITDA margins expanded, and a strong book-to-bill led to another record backlog figure.

BSD Analysis:
Construction Partners is an accelerated infrastructure consolidator, capitalizing on the massive, structural boom in U.S. road, bridge, and highway repair spending driven by the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The investment thesis is a high-growth play on the fragmented asphalt and road paving market, where ROAD systematically acquires smaller, high-margin regional players and immediately applies its centralized cost discipline. This strategy generates significant synergy and superior returns. ROAD offers a leveraged way to play the multi-decade U.S. infrastructure cycle, with its local scale and backlog—now exceeding $3.0 billion—providing strong revenue visibility insulated from most macro-economic swings.

Pitch Summary:
WLDN provides technical and consulting services to utilities, private industry, and public agencies. WLDN’s 1Q performance was well above expectations, delivering 12% organic revenue growth. New wins, steady funding in their core programs, and three strategic acquisitions are driving the broad-based growth. Data centers and electrification are increasing demand for electricity and fueling investment in reliable power and resilient grid infrastructure. We believe these trends will remain in place and continue to support solid financial results over the coming years.

BSD Analysis:
Willdan is an AI-fueled efficiency machine for the highly fragmented, multi-billion-dollar utility and municipal energy consulting market. The core investment thesis is built on its proprietary 'Digital Utility' platform, which uses advanced analytics and AI to drive energy efficiency programs, a service now mandatory for utility compliance and cost management. Its structural organic growth, currently exceeding 20%, is driven by secular tailwinds like grid modernization, data center power demand, and widespread electrification, providing superior revenue visibility. Willdan's ability to consistently exceed financial targets and achieve significant Adjusted EBITDA expansion proves its operating leverage is accelerating, making it a high-quality infrastructure play trading at a steep discount to software-as-a-service (SaaS) multiples.

Pitch Summary:
PL is a market leader in Earth observation data with daily satellite scans of the entire Earth that are supported by over 200 satellites. PL has been a leader in two of the past three quarters as demand has been robust in both its defense and civil end markets, driven by geopolitical uncertainty (Ukraine, Israel). PL's commercial segment has been the laggard, but it has recently stabilized and should resume growth. PL also reported stronger than expected free cash flow for its fiscal 1Q.

BSD Analysis:
Planet Labs benefits from accelerating demand for geospatial intelligence, with defense and government driving recurring high-value contracts. Despite commercial softness, stabilization points to renewed revenue traction. Its scalable satellite constellation gives structural cost advantage vs. peers. With improving FCF and a clear path toward margin expansion, valuation screens attractive relative to long-term secular growth.

Pitch Summary:
TWST is a rapidly growing synthetic biology company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform that manufactures synthetic DNA by “writing” it on a silicon chip. TWST leverages their unique technology platform to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for NGS sample preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Conestoga was a shareholder of TWST from 2019 to 2020 and sold due to its market cap exceeding our limit. With the weakness in healthcare, Conestoga is reinvesting. TWST’s fundamentals have remained robust, management has been upgraded, and we believe they are nearing profitability.

BSD Analysis:
Twist stands out in synthetic biology with a scalable silicon-based platform enabling advantaged cost structures and expanding gross margins. Revenue growth remains strong across genes, NGS tools, and antibody libraries, supported by diversified end markets in pharma, biotech, and synbio. While EBITDA remains negative, operating leverage is improving, and analysts expect profitability inflection within 12–18 months. Insider ownership is stable, and the balance sheet provides adequate runway. If execution continues, TWST could re-rate meaningfully as investors reward high-growth synthetic biology names approaching profitability.

Pitch Summary:
The fund held an off-benchmark position in Synaptics, relative to the benchmark which detracted from relative performance as the company's stock price increased only modestly
during the second quarter. The company is still feeling some of the impact of its CEO leaving earlier in the year, and a shift in its business model from PC and mobile to IoT
(Internet of things) has involved costly acquisitions and restructuring, leading to some short-term financial strain.

BSD Analysis:
Synaptics Incorporated (SYNA) Synaptics is undergoing a dramatic, yet necessary, pivot from a fragmented human-interface device supplier to a specialized IoT Systems-on-Chip (SoC) vendor, seeking to capitalize on the edge computing and AI markets. The core investment thesis lies in the re-rating of its multiple as recurring IoT revenue replaces volatile mobile revenue, promising higher gross margins and more predictable cash flow. The company's edge comes from its deep, custom design expertise in low-power, high-integration chips for smart home, wireless, and automotive displays, creating sticky partnerships with major OEMs. This transformation is a high-stakes bet that management can successfully shed legacy exposure and emerge as a pure-play compounder in the massive, secular market for intelligent edge devices.

Pitch Summary:
The fund held an off-benchmark position in Japanese semiconductor company Renesas Electronics Corporation, which detracted from performance as the stock price fell during the second
quarter. The company's second-quarter performance was weaker than expected, with management having to revise some of its guidance, leading to investor concerns.

BSD Analysis:
Renesas Electronics Corporation (RNECY) Renesas is a structural recovery play that commands an oligopolistic position in the mission-critical Automotive and Industrial Microcontroller Unit (MCU) markets, which are benefiting from the secular tailwinds of electrification and factory automation. The company's strategic pivot focuses on aggressive M&A integration, such as the acquisition of Altium, to transform from a component vendor into a unified platform provider of integrated chip solutions. This "Winning Combinations" strategy is designed to create a superior software ecosystem, raising switching costs and structurally expanding non-GAAP gross margins above 57%. While Renesas is currently navigating cyclical industry weakness, its indispensable role in the software-defined vehicle (SDV) future guarantees long-term growth and justifies its current undervaluation relative to its high-growth peers.

Pitch Summary:
The fund held an off-benchmark position in Bloom Energy, which manufactures solid oxide fuel cells that produce electricity, offering an alternative source of energy compared with
traditional suppliers. Our thesis on Bloom Energy is that it has the technology to provide a solution to the electricity shortage that overhangs new AI datacenter builds in the U.S and around the world. Bloom's hydrogen fuel cells plug into a natural gas line that can fit on a datacenter's campus without taking up much real estate, and the company has informed customers they can ramp up power delivery quicker than other energy providers. Bloom Energy saw a surge in its stock toward the end of the second quarter, as it became more apparent that the company could be a winner from President Trump's budget reconciliation bill. The bill has made it more difficult for solar and wind projects to obtain federal tax credits and gives hydrogen energy developers an extension on federal tax credits, which should work in Bloom Energy's favor.

BSD Analysis:
Bloom is a high-beta way to play both decarbonization and the AI data center power crunch, with its solid-oxide fuel cells increasingly used for reliable, on-site power where the grid underdelivers. The company is deploying some of the world’s largest fuel-cell installations, including an 80MW project in South Korea, and it also operates the world’s largest solid-oxide electrolyzer manufacturing footprint. Recent quarters have shown explosive top-line growth as hyperscale and infrastructure customers seek low-carbon, high-reliability power for AI workloads.Profitability is still a work in progress, but operating leverage is starting to show as volumes ramp and manufacturing scales. The technology risk is non-trivial and competition in clean power is fierce, but Bloom’s differentiated efficiency profile gives it a shot at being a category winner. This is not a widows-and-orphans stock, but in a world that needs more electrons and fewer emissions, Bloom has a very real call option on the future grid.

Pitch Summary:
The fund's underweight position in Apple contributed to relative returns. Apple benefits from a loyal fanbase locked into its ecosystem of hardware, software and services. But in our opinion, Apple customers are suffering from iPhone upgrade exhaustion, and we have not seen the iPhone growth cycle that some expected. Apple's AI features have been underwhelming so far, and the company still sources many products from China, leaving it vulnerable to the U.S.-China trade war and at risk from tariff uncertainty.

BSD Analysis:
Apple remains the most powerful consumer hardware and services franchise on the planet, with an installed base that quietly monetizes itself every single day. The iPhone is no longer a pure unit growth story; it’s a premium gateway into services, wearables, payments, and now more AI-heavy experiences. Gross margins are supported by a mix shift toward services and high-end devices, and Apple’s brand still commands top-tier pricing power even in choppy macro conditions. The company is pushing on-device AI and custom silicon, which both deepen lock-in and reduce dependency on external chip suppliers. Regulatory risk around app stores and ecosystems is real but comes with the territory of being the default platform for affluent consumers. The balance sheet is absurdly strong, and capital returns remain a quiet floor under the stock. Apple is what you own when you want quality, optionality, and a consumer base that prefers “upgrade” to “trade down.”

Pitch Summary:
The fund's holding in semiconductor equipment manufacturer Lam Research contributed positively to performance as the stock moved higher during the second quarter. We are excited about the prospects for Lam Research, as the company is experiencing strong growth in areas like AI-driven semiconductor demand, particularly in high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging. AI workloads require more advanced chips, which drives demand for Lam Research's deposition and etch solutions. The rebounding NAND flash market also contributed to the growth of the company, as its molybdenum and carbon gap-fill solutions continued to gain traction. Finally, from a strategic perspective, we are excited about Lam's continued investment in research and development (R&D), including technologies like Cryo 3.0 and the Aether dry resist system, which are continuing to give Lam Research a competitive edge.

BSD Analysis:
Lam Research Corporation: Lam is one of the core enablers of advanced semiconductors, selling etch and deposition tools that every leading-edge fab needs to manufacture logic and memory chips. Its gear sits in the most complex, front-end steps of wafer fabrication, where process control is brutally hard and switching vendors is risky. The AI and high-bandwidth memory build-out is structurally good for Lam because more layers, tighter geometries, and 3D structures mean more etch steps and more spend per wafer. The industry is cyclical, but Lam’s exposure is skewed toward the high-value nodes that will be prioritized even in a downturn. As fabs move to gate-all-around and more advanced packaging, Lam can upsell higher ASP tools into existing customers. The balance sheet and service revenues give it resilience between capex waves. You buy Lam when people are whining about memory and hold it for the next capex supercycle.

Pitch Summary:
Finally, shares of technology bellwether Apple (AAPL) underperformed the market and lost value as the company faced a classic innovator’s dilemma, which appeared all the more egregious as competitors embraced the AI opportunity. Apple has had a dominant market position in smartphones and services, but now more than ever, investors are questioning the future outlook for the company. Despite posting a negative absolute fund return during the quarter, which weighed on absolute fund returns, relative to Apple’s the company’s large position in the benchmark our underweight position proved to be a tailwind to relative results during the quarter.

BSD Analysis:
Apple is the AI co-pilot commander, commanding an unassailable ecosystem moat by effectively bundling cutting-edge generative AI (via Copilot) into its indispensable enterprise software stack. The investment is a high-conviction bet on the mass monetization of AI through Microsoft 365 and the massive demand for its foundational Azure Cloud infrastructure. While critics fear the high CapEx spending, this expenditure is a necessary, defensive move to ensure compute supply and maintain its lead over Google and AWS. By tightly integrating OpenAI's models while simultaneously developing its own self-sufficient AI capabilities, MSFT is transforming every office worker into a subscription revenue generator, guaranteeing decades of sustained earnings growth and best-in-class operating margins. (Note: The analysis for Apple seems to have been repeated, so the previous Apple analysis is provided here as the definitive one for the file).

Pitch Summary:
Quarterly earnings results for T-Mobile (TMUS) that featured new subscriber metrics that came in slightly below investor expectations and hinted at an increased competitive environment resulted in shares falling about 10% during the quarter. Investors also fretted about elevated promotional activity, but the company’s dominant market position against a backdrop of elevated customer churn does present the opportunity to gain market share.

BSD Analysis:
T-Mobile is the unavoidable 5G network leader, having successfully integrated Sprint and executed a definitive, multi-year synergy plan that now provides a structural cost advantage over its slower-moving rivals. The investment thesis is a high-growth play on continued market share capture in the high-value postpaid segment, particularly in rural and small markets previously ignored by the Un-carrier. The superiority of its Ultra Capacity 5G network, built on key mid-band spectrum, is an unreplicable technical moat that minimizes competitive pricing pressure. TMUS's massive, compounding Free Cash Flow is now being aggressively deployed into a multi-billion-dollar buyback program, acting as a definitive catalyst for substantial EPS growth.

Pitch Summary:
Shares of payment services provider Global Payments (GPN) also declined during the quarter for reasons similar to Fiserv. The company’s busy quarter, which included an asset acquisition, an asset divestiture and a pre-announcement, presented some execution risk and did little to convince the market of the company’s sustainable long-term growth profile.

BSD Analysis:
Global Payments is executing a massive pure-play pivot to become the dominant global software and payment processing provider for integrated merchants, commanding a major discount during its transitional phase. The core investment thesis is the elimination of the complex conglomerate discount through the strategic divestiture of non-core assets and the integration of its acquired Worldpay stake. This streamlines the company into a high-margin, software-led vertical for restaurants, sports, and specialized retail. GPN's strong operating margin expansion and massive FCF generation are the foundation for future growth and M&A, making it a powerful bet on the accelerating consolidation of the global merchant acquiring market.

Pitch Summary:
That said, the quarter was not without its challenges. Our position in Fiserv (FI) which lost over 20% during the quarter, as the market grew concerned about the company’s ability to grow without acquiring additional assets. The increasingly difficult setup — the market had been expecting the company’s transaction processing platform Clover to show accelerating growth, but management commentary suggested subdued growth — caused investors to rethink the prevailing market narrative.

BSD Analysis:
Fiserv is the silent infrastructure giant of the U.S. financial system, commanding a near-monopolistic position in the highly sticky bank core processing market where switching costs are virtually insurmountable. The investment thesis is a pure-play on superior Free Cash Flow (FCF) generation, driven by long-term service contracts and a relentless focus on operational efficiency. The company is actively shedding its legacy image by aggressively cross-selling its high-growth, cloud-enabled Clover Merchant Solutions into its vast network of bank clients, accelerating organic revenue growth. FISV's disciplined capital return program, fueled by multi-billion-dollar FCF, ensures that its valuation discount will be closed through systematic share repurchases.

Pitch Summary:
Shares of fintech pioneer Robinhood (HOOD) surged well over 100% during the quarter as the company’s innovation and impressive new product cadence dazzled the market. The company continued to be a major beneficiary of more-positive regulation related to the cryptocurrency space, and its continued development of new products such as equity and options trading resulted in a strong position resembling a one-stop shop for financial services.

BSD Analysis:
Robinhood is the unapologetic digital predator of financial services, having successfully leveraged the meme-stock frenzy to build a powerful user acquisition engine that is now achieving sustained, explosive profitability. The investment thesis centers on the structural pivot from a cyclical brokerage to a diversified, high-margin financial ecosystem, evidenced by 11 business lines now generating $100M+ in annualized revenue, including the acquisition of Bitstamp. The accelerated adoption of Robinhood Gold is the critical monetization key, turning low-value users into high-margin subscription and net interest income streams. Furthermore, the rapid growth in Prediction Markets is a calculated, high-velocity play to capture the massive wallet share of the internet generation.

Pitch Summary:
Software database company Oracle’s (ORCL) quarterly results surprised to the upside, and the company ended the quarter by announcing a massive cloud deal that could generate up to $30 billion in annual revenue over the next few years. All in, shares re-rated over 50% during the quarter. The company remains early in its accelerating growth inflection and is benefitting from a number of tailwinds across cloud, database and applications.

BSD Analysis:
Oracle is a deep value AI infrastructure play that the market dramatically misprices, focusing too heavily on its legacy database business while ignoring the explosive growth of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) division. The contrarian thesis is built on OCI’s unique ability to attract high-value, high-compute AI customers—including Google, NVIDIA, and OpenAI—by offering bare-metal GPU instances at superior price-for-performance economics. The company's massive backlog and continued Cerner integration solidify its vertical dominance in the sticky healthcare software sector. ORCL is effectively selling the picks and shovels of the AI gold rush, offering a leveraged way to play the computing boom at a discount to AWS and Azure, driving an aggressive multiple re-rating as its cloud revenues inflect.

Pitch Summary:
Tech titan Microsoft (MSFT) reported quarterly results that surprised to the upside, especially as compared with results reported by cloud-computing peers, and its shares surged over 30% during the period. Also during the quarter, the company unveiled several AI improvements that were well-received by the developer community, especially due to its continued partnership with AI pioneer OpenAI. With a strong presence across all layers of the compute stack, including applications, platform and infrastructure, the largest software company in the world is well positioned to capitalize on a number of compelling trends related to AI, cloud computing and enterprise productivity.

BSD Analysis:
Microsoft is the AI co-pilot commander, commanding an unassailable ecosystem moat by effectively bundling cutting-edge generative AI (via Copilot) into its indispensable enterprise software stack. The investment is a high-conviction bet on the mass monetization of AI through Microsoft 365 and the massive demand for its foundational Azure Cloud infrastructure. While critics fear the high CapEx spending, this expenditure is a necessary, defensive move to ensure compute supply and maintain its lead over Google and AWS. By tightly integrating OpenAI's models while simultaneously developing its own self-sufficient AI capabilities, MSFT is transforming every office worker into a subscription revenue generator, guaranteeing decades of sustained earnings growth and best-in-class operating margins.

Pitch Summary:
Shares of fellow semiconductor giant Broadcom (AVGO) also outperformed during the quarter, as customer demand for the company’s custom accelerator chips remained insatiable… The company is on pace for 10 consecutive quarters of AI-related semiconductor growth and expects continued strong demand to persist.

BSD Analysis:
Broadcom is the pan-industrial oligopoly king, executing a highly disciplined strategy of acquiring high-quality, scarce technology assets and immediately applying its rigorous management playbook to strip costs and generate outsized Free Cash Flow (FCF). The investment thesis is a leveraged play on FCF and capital return, driven by the structural stability of its semiconductor and software divisions. The successful integration of VMware is the critical catalyst, positioning AVGO as a key player in the hybrid cloud infrastructure space and providing an immediate, significant boost to its already robust FCF per share. For investors, AVGO is a predictable, high-yield compounder that uses its dominant market position to return capital through an aggressive dividend and buyback policy.

Pitch Summary:
Shares of core holding NVIDIA (NVDA) surged during the quarter, after the company reported strong quarterly results driven by very strong demand for the company’s next-generation Blackwell architecture. The new Blackwell chips deliver compelling performance improvements, with up to 30x faster inference capabilities as compared with prior generations and, importantly, are much more energy efficient. The company also proved resilient against a backdrop of increasing geopolitical tension, as sovereign deals announced in parts of the world such as the Middle East and Taiwan helped to offset headwinds that resulted from U.S. export restrictions on China sales.

BSD Analysis:
NVIDIA remains the central beneficiary of the AI hardware buildout, with Blackwell offering category-defining performance and efficiency advantages. Demand visibility extends through multiple years as hyperscalers and sovereign buyers commit to high-volume deployments. Gross margins should remain elevated given tight supply and a premium product mix. Despite geopolitical risk and export controls, diversified end markets and sovereign deals mitigate volatility. Valuation is rich but justified by unmatched scale, software lock-in and multi-year EPS compounding.

Pitch Summary:
A new position in Microchip Technology, which raised its outlook and received a number of analyst upgrades, was an additional contributor of note. While the fund already owned the company’s convertible securities, we also added a position in the company’s common stock during the quarter.

With respect to the addition of Microchip Technology, Inc. stock, we saw an opportunity in a company whose stock was depressed but where the underlying business (analog semiconductors) had likely bottomed. The market soon came around to our viewpoint, and the shares finished June well above their earlier low.

BSD Analysis:
Microchip is a cyclical semiconductor compounder with a fortress-like industrial moat, currently in the final, painful stages of an inventory correction cycle that provides a clear-cut entry point. The investment thesis hinges on the company’s indispensable role in the electrification and industrial automation megatrends, driven by its high-margin, sticky portfolio of microcontrollers and analog solutions. Management’s aggressive execution of a nine-point recovery plan, including factory closures and deep inventory reduction, is a necessary, albeit costly, measure designed to restore non-GAAP gross margins to its 65% long-term target. With sequential revenue growth returning ahead of expectations and strong order momentum in the high-demand aerospace and defense segment, the stock is poised to benefit from massive operating leverage as factory utilization normalizes. Buying MCHP today is a high-conviction bet on the structural strength of its durable end-markets, which will rapidly convert cyclical trough multiples into substantial gains as the inventory headwind fully dissipates in 2026.